The present invention relates generally to hand gloves, and in particular, gloves that aid in gripping an object.
The gripping of objects could be considered an important aspect of everyday life because of the simple fact that people use their hands to grip objects all of the time during the course of the day. Yet, victims of many medical conditions, such as strokes, Parkinson""s disease and multiple sclerosis, are unable to use their hands to grip objects with the fullest ability. In addition to sufferers of these and other diseases, many people lose the use of their hands as a result of a variety of hand trauma accidents. Losing the use of one""s hand not only affects a person""s ability to function with completing everyday tasks, the inability to use one""s hand reduces the strength of the muscles in the hand itself, as well as any muscle (e.g. pectoral muscle) that traditionally requires the hand to aid in strengthening that particular muscle. Extensive hours of physical therapy are usually required for a person to recover the use of one""s hand to the point where the person is able to function at a level that is similar to the level before the accident or onset of the medical condition. Many times this physical therapy requires the use of expensive special training equipment and a physical therapist present at all times. Large remedial equipment is not always practical for a person and sometimes the equipment is limited in its scope of recovering the use of a user""s hand. The ability to use ordinary weight lifting equipment would allow a person to regain muscle ability without using special equipment. Furthermore, a piece of equipment that is versatile in its ability to allow the user to grip many different type of objects or weight equipment would be helpful for a person to regain the motor function of his or her hand. Also, the dependence of a person on a physical therapist can be redundant when the person possesses the knowledge of what must be accomplished, but needs a therapist present to work a machine. A piece of equipment that allows for maximum independence for a person would allow a physical therapist or trainer to focus on form, technique, alignment and specific training as opposed to focusing on the user gripping of the weight.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.
In one aspect of the present invention, a glove comprises a glove body that includes a hand opening, a backing, a palm, finger spaces. Also the glove body includes means, including a plurality of laces attached to the glove body, for tying the glove body to an object to be gripped.
In another aspect of the present invention, a glove comprises a glove body that includes a hand opening, a backing, a palm, finger spaces and a plurality of elastic loops attached to the glove. The elastic loops being sized and positioned to receive a fingertip.
Another aspect of the present invention covers a method of gripping using a glove. The method includes securing a user""s hand inside the glove, wrapping a user""s hand around an object to be gripped and attaching the glove to the object to be gripped. This is accomplished by tying laces attached to the glove to one another and/or placing a user""s fingertip in elastic loops attached to the glove.